With the rise of the online text, e-readers and tablets, there has been a revolution in how people consume written information. The way most people write math, however, hasn’t changed in centuries.

It was this realization that inspired Indiana University’s David Landy to create Graspable Math — software that allows users to “touch” and manipulate numbers on a screen. The result is a system that lets students learn mathematical concepts by “playing” with numbers — opening the door to grasping concepts before mastering rules of notation.